The book and film appear to have been inspired by a possibly true story: On 25 June 1951, Time magazine reported that two German soldiers claimed to have been trapped for six years in an underground storehouse in Babie Doły, Poland.

[12] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This real-life horror story  ...begins with a remarkably deft if conventional prologue, describing the work routine in a Nazi slave labour camp and the confusion created by a naval bombardment which leads to the main characters' entombment.

It piously refuses to detach itself from their experience, and to offer any kind of reflection on the situation which would enable the viewer to apprehend it as anything other than an uncomfortable way to spend an hour and a half.

The international mixture of star names in the cast rather baldly and inadequately conjures up the crosssection of pillaged Europe which these slave workers represent.

But given the film's minimal dramatic means, its refusal to supply much in the way of personal histories or social backgrounds, these star personas are occasionally driven dangerously close to the surface: when the film allows itself a rare comic interlude, for instance, as schoolteacher Peter Sellers tries to work out his own confusion about how the game of dominoes could be of both English and Greek origin, it suddenly seems as if Sellers is emerging from the shadows to play Inspector Clouseau.

"[13] TV Guide states that "the film tries to study men in a terrible, claustrophobic setting, but it never reveals the true nature of the characters or a metaphysical reason for their predicament.